Primer tercio del siglo XIX en las novelas de Arturo Pérez-Reverte, El: guerra, historia e ideología

Abstract

The work of the Spanish novelist Arturo Pérez-Reverte has had a considerable critical reception, but most of these critics focus on the analysis of narrative resources used by the author and avoid inquiring into the ideology that underlies its novel output. In the present study we analyze the ideology inherent in the historical novels of Pérez-Reverte that focus on the first third of the nineteenth century --the period that runs from the end of the reign of Charles IV, the Spanish War of Independence and the liberal and absolutist periods of the second decade of the century--. This is done by examining the development of various concepts of vital importance in the narrative of Pérez-Reverte: war, history and ideology. These concepts will be studied in the novels El húsar, La sombra del águila, Territorio comanche, Cabo Trafalgar, Un día de cólera and El asedio. In this study, these novels are divided into two groups according to the evolution that the author experienced during his career novel, which begins under the influence of a liberal trend and ends with an ideological vision closer to nationalism and traditionalism. This research aims to demonstrate how Pérez-Reverte does a critical examination of the past so that the reader can connect it with the present and recover "some" collective memory and a "lost" national identity constructed through the narration of certain episodes of national history.